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In a post to the Free Software Foundation's web-site, Richard Stallman has called out Ubuntu as being "spyware" due to the Amazon search capabilities that have been integrated into Ubuntu's Unity desktop environment with the Dash.

Stallman equates the Amazon search integration into the Ubuntu desktop as having "installed surveillance code." The controversial free software advocate goes on to say, "If you ever recommend or redistribute GNU/Linux, please remove Ubuntu from the distros you recommend or redistribute. If its practice of installing and recommending nonfree software didn't convince you to stop, let this convince you. In your install fests, in your Software Freedom Day events, in your FLISOL events, don't install or recommend Ubuntu. Instead, tell people that Ubuntu is shunned for spying."

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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